


The Yellow Paladin

by Canadiantardis



Series: The Paladins of Voltron [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A few alien OCs here and there, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And now lance's family joins the fray!, Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Haggarian!Pidge, Hunk deserves all the love, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Kidnapping, Little less kidfriendly with the blood, Minor Violence, Past Brainwashing, Pidge is asleep the entire fic, Rescue Missions, Slow Romance, Surprisingly kidfriendly despite the angst, With A Twist, bit of blood, lance is not okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-10-06 21:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10345251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: Lance and Pidge are finally safe, but Lance is... Different. Harsher. Words held with a sharper tongue hurt without meaning to. When he learns his family has been taken captive by Lotor in an attempt to draw him back, Lance lashes out against those trying to help.Fed up with how he thinks he's seen by the others, Hunk makes it his mission to save Lance's siblings no matter the cost to himself.//Sequel to The Blue Paladin and The Green Paladin!





	1. Varadero Beach

Miranda held onto her younger siblings’ wrists and tugged them outside, closing her eyes briefly as if to mentally drown out their shouting and begging to not leave the house, digging their heels in, but the elder was a good two decades older and easily pulled them along.

_“Miri! Please! I don’t wanna!”_ They trilled and cried, voices overlapping until they reached the top stair of the porch.

_“Mama needs sleep. She called me to babysit you two, and she won’t get any sleep if you both yell and run about inside.”_ Miranda explained to the younger two. _“C’mon, why don’t we head down to the beach. It’s late in the season, there won’t be any tourists to crowd around.”_

At the mention of the nearby beach, both Nino and Pyrha perked right up and shot forward, soon dragging _Miranda_ behind them, shouting over one another excitedly. Miranda simply laughed and allowed herself to be dragged by her little siblings.

The three siblings headed over to one of the beaches that lined Varadero, Miranda keeping an eye for any cars to pass by as they crossed a few streets before they reached the sandy beach. It was a warm day for an August day, and the ocean practically sparkled in the late afternoon sun.

Once their feet hit the sand, Miranda let Nino and Pyrha go and watched them blast forward towards the water, not caring for the clothes they wore. Having always lived so close to beaches made their clothes constantly salty, so they simply stopped caring about being careful. But Miranda was anyway, sitting down in one of the shadier places on the beach, keeping a watchful eye on her siblings as they use up their energy.

They were there for an hour, Miranda soon being dragged into the water to help Pyrha and Nino stay afloat when the waves hit a little harder than an eight- and ten-year old could normally manage. She held her sister’s hands, watching her kicking feet and nodding happily.

_“Yes, that’s perfect, sweetheart.”_ She cheered, smiling warmly at her. _“You’re learning so fast, you could become an Olympian athlete.”_

Pyrha gave a loud trill of laughter, face red with exertion and excitement. She kicked harder and Miranda let go of her hands in time to watch her sister zoom into her chest, sending her onto her back with a splash and a laugh.

It was then that the two heard Nino scream and Miranda’s head snapped up. This wasn’t a happy scream, or a laugh, but a shout of surprise, scared almost.

Instinct kicked in and she pulled Pyrha close to her chest, twisting her head to find where Nino was and why he had given the shout.

She saw him by the shore, head up to the sky with eyes like saucers and pointing to the clouds. Turning her head to see what Nino was looking at, while also taking both herself and Pyrha closer to their brother, Miranda saw what caught his attention and wondered how she hadn’t seen it earlier.

Something was blocking out the sun, a large strangely shaped object that was unlike any plane or spacecraft Miranda had ever seen. The front-half looked like a hook - a thin middle from what she could see - with the second-half looking like a proper spacecraft, like from Star Wars.

Then something from the thing seemed to pop out and streak towards them and Miranda took action, jumping up, holding onto Pyrha tightly as she wrapped her arms and legs around her side, and made her way to Nino.

_“Nino, we have to go!”_ She shouted. She didn’t know what was coming towards them, but she didn’t want to find out.

Their brother jumped to attention and nodded, running ahead before stopping dead in his tracks to look behind - at the thing falling or at his sisters, Miranda wasn’t sure - his eyes widening.

_“Miri! Miri!”_ He shouted, running back to her, and the elder had to prepare herself for him to launch himself into her arms.

Now burdened with both siblings, Miranda paused to hold them both better, but during that time, the thing was within sight, and as she watched, it crashed into the sand not a yard away from where the three stood, wide-eyed.

_“Miri? Miri I don’t like it.”_ Pyrha whispered into her ear, and Miranda had to agree. The thing was like a strange cross between a Hummer and a Garrison transport vehicle without the tracks. It was dark in colour, with something about it that made the elder want to shiver.

_“Miri, let’s go. Mama will be worried.”_ Nino whispered in Miranda’s other ear, looking away just as the door - _there had been a door?_ \- lifted up, and the elder found herself unable to move in shock.

Several things trickled out of the thing, sharp dark purple suits covering them all from head to foot except two… creatures. And the faces of the creatures were what made Miranda freeze in shock.

They had purple faces, fangs peeking out from large lips, and had the most bizarre hair ever, sticking up in points like ears on either side of their heads. One had a scar in the form of a Y across their face and the other had what looked like an eyepatch over their right eye.

The one-eyed purple creature - _alien?!_ \- turned its head and seemed to stare straight at Miranda, and that was when her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in and she bolted, holding Nino and Pyrha tightly, adrenaline making it easier to keep them up.

But still, she ran slower because of their added weight, and barely made it past a block when something snared her feet and she twisted to hit her back, still keeping her siblings mostly safe, all three shouting.

The eye-patch alien was heading over to them, and Miranda turned to them, whispering quickly. _“Go, go, go. Get home and lock the doors, go to Mama!”_ She was pushing them out of her arms, pleading they would run and listen to her.

Nino did listen, and she heard him pelt across the street, but Pyrha stood frozen in fear. But Miranda couldn’t worry about that now, she heard the Eye-Patch shout something guttural and entirely _alien_ , pointing at Nino’s running form.

_“No!”_ She screamed, kicking at whatever held her legs - some neon pink seamless rope or laser or something - but unable to break from it as one of the completely armoured-covered aliens ran after her brother.

The Eye-Patch had reached Miranda and Pyrha when they heard Nino shriek and the elder felt her heart leap into her throat in fear for her siblings and herself. Eye-Patch seemed to smile, revealing all fangs that looked like they were made from rough rocks, and when the alien spoke, Miranda was shocked to hear English as it tapped something on its arm piece.

The voice was deep and masculine, throaty. “Tell the Prince we found some.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the italics are them speaking Spanish.  
> Also, welcome back! Betcha weren't expecting this kind of return, huh? Or maybe you were, with how I ended Blue Paladin...  
> Nino and Pyrha will be safe, I promise.


	2. Safe for now

~+~+~One Day Earlier~+~+~

Hunk held Pidge to his chest as they all sat behind the Green Paladin’s seat in Green, taking off his helmet to look her over carefully.

She had bruises along her neck, but Hunk couldn’t tell if that was from being a captive or if they were 'space hickies' from not wearing a helmet. As he lay her across his lap, he checked for any broken bones or anything internal damaging like it, sighing in relief that she was okay.

He was startled out of his checking when Keith also took off his helmet and suddenly grunted as Lance embraced him tightly - his shackles had finally been cut off by Keith’s sword - cheeks pressing close together. Hunk watched as Keith hesitantly wrapped his own arms around Lance and they both realized at the same time that Lance was much thinner than normal. Always the beanpole, the two saw how his jacket hung off him instead of fitting snuggly and both wondered if either of them had been given any sort of food during their imprisonment.

The thought brought Hunk’s attention back to Pidge, taking into account she might not have eaten in awhile either, and… Yep, her cheekbones were in sharper definition, any of her baby fat from her cheeks eaten away from hunger. Hunk stored all this information to tell Coran so they would know what to set into the pod while also keeping her in basically a medically induced coma.

“She’ll… She’ll be okay, yeah?” Lance asked, jolting Hunk from his mental note-taking and he looked up to see him and Keith looking at him and Pidge.

“She doesn’t have any internal damages, that I can tell anyway.” He stated, his eyes flitting over to the chair Lance leaned against where Matt was flying Green back to the Castle of Lions and most likely listening. “But the bruising looks bad, and going outside without a helmet will have caused something bad to her lungs, like you, Lance. And to answer your question, until we finally stop the Galra, Pidge won’t be okay.”

Lance’s face softened into sadness and he nodded, a look in his eyes that were similar to Shiro’s at times that made him seem centuries older than he was.

Keith noticed the look too, as he put a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We’ll beat them once and for all. Just have to stop Haggar from being able to control Pidge, and she’ll be back to normal, I just know it.”

The look of sadness turned to rage in a heartbeat. “That better work. She was hurt for no reason and…” Lance seemed to slump against Keith heavily, suddenly weary. “And I couldn’t do anything. They hurt her just so they could and I couldn’t stop them, no matter what I tried.”

“Look, you’re both safe now.” Keith tried to comfort. Hunk could tell the keyword was _try_. “Pidge isn’t going to be hurt by them anymore.”

Lance opened his mouth to speak when Matt interrupted him, standing up from the seat and turning to them. “We’re back, c’mon, let’s get to the medical bay quick.”

Hunk nodded and scooped Pidge in his arms as Keith and Matt helped Lance up to his feet. It seemed the hunger and realization he was safe finally caught up to him and the three other Paladins saw him stumble like a drunken chicken.

With Hunk in the lead, the four headed to the medical bay where Shiro and the Alteans were waiting. Allura looked relieved and while Shiro went to check on Lance, Coran headed over to Hunk.

“So? What do we need to do?” He asked.

“We need her in there for an indefinite period,” Hunk started, “but she should heal up any injuries sustained and something like an IV to give her food. Can these pods give something like food to patients?”

Coran raised an eyebrow, pulling at one corner of his mustache. “Ivy? What’s that?”

“It means intravenous. It’s supposed to, like, be a needle that connects to the veins so we can give fluids and stuff to keep her healthy.” Hunk tried to explain.

“Oh, ah gotcha.” Coran nodded. “We don’t have those but the pods should be able to restore the fluids she lost.”

“Good. We should also check if her lungs are good and stuff, because she and Lance had to be in deep space without a helmet.” The Yellow Paladin added as Coran went off to the nearest pod and entered the information into it. “Can these pods really hold people in a coma?”

“Well, they were able to hold Princess Allura and I for over ten thousand years without us looking any different.” Coran reassured. “So Pidge will be just fine. Don’t worry, my man.”

Hunk took a deep breath and nodded, and within the minute Pidge was looking very peaceful in the medical suits - Allura and Matt changed her as all of the others were afraid to see more bruises on her body - and so very small in the medical pod. Her forehead was creased in what could have looked like concentration or pain before the pod slid into the floor.

“When it’s indefinite, the pods normally go down so nothing can hinder the healing. Or to protect them in case of attack of the castle.” Coran told them when Shiro looked to ask before turning to Lance. “Now time for you to get into a pod, young man.”

“What, why?” Lance asked.

“Well, your wound hasn’t healed properly, and we have to make sure you aren’t hurting internally.” The older Altean reasoned, heading for another pod and waving a hand. “Now, c’mon. You should be safer now, and it’ll be much less than before. Just a few vargas, then you can come out and eat with the rest of us for dinner.”

Lance looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the pod but he didn’t argue. Soon he was also placed in a pod, still in his civilian clothes as he didn’t want to change, no matter how much Shiro and Coran tried to reason with him.

Once the two injured Paladins were cared for, Allura finally spoke up.

“So, I’m guessing the rescue went successfully?” She asked, looking between Hunk and Keith.

Hunk nodded. “Yeah, it went on pretty well. I think Keith got caught when he found Lance, but we got out without a scratch, which is something.”

“Yeah, met with the Prince.” Keith muttered, a dark look on his face. “He wasn’t too happy I was able to get to Lance, because only Galra could open his cell door.”

“You met Lotor?” Allura frowned.

Keith nodded. “Yeah. Very brief, but I got the last laugh saving Lance.”

“It’s a good thing you did.” The Princess said. “I shudder to think what Lotor would have continued to do to Lance if we had not been able to save him.”

“I wasn’t about to let him stay a prisoner.” The Red Paladin crossed his arms, looking past the group towards where Lance healed. “And I’m not about to let him become a prisoner again.”

“None of us will allow that to happen, to him or to anyone else.” Shiro said, and the others all nodded in agreement.

“So where do we go now?” Matt spoke up after a long pregnant pause.

“We need time for Lance at least to heal properly, so we should go to a system far from the Galra empire for a bit.” Shiro suggested.

“Yes, that sounds like a good plan. I’ll get us a jump, you all may rest now. Coran?” She called for the other Altean as she headed out of the medical bay, leaving the Paladins alone.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THings are looking up, huh? What could possibly go wrong? :3c  
> Most interesting point I learned while writing this, space hickies being a thing.


	3. Curl and uncurl

Keith felt a sick sense of deja-vu as he looked over at Lance in the pod. It was too similar to the time Lance had saved Coran from the bomb back when Sendak ambushed them.

He still remembered the worry that clawed at his chest when he and Allura had been separated from Lance and Shiro and Pidge, unable to do anything until Pidge or the space mice got the particle barrier down. At the time he hadn’t been sure what had made him feel that much worry - whether it was for Shiro or Pidge or Lance or all three of them, and he still wasn’t sure - but he could guess it was more for Lance because out of the three, Lance was practically in a coma from the bomb.

His eyes flit to the timer in the middle of the glass, stating how much longer Lance would be in there to heal before he jumped a foot in the air with a yelp when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Sorry! Sorry, thought you heard me come in.” Hunk jumped back, hands up defensively. “Just came to see how you were doing, and how much longer Lance is in there.”

Keith took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. “Just a couple minutes now.” He gestured to Lance’s pod. “You came just in time to see him out.”

Hunk chuckled and nodded, lowering his hands. “That’s good.” He seemed to look over at Lance before he turned his attention back to Keith. “But I was actually wondering if I could talk to you before he gets out.”

Keith frowned, shifting from foot to foot. “What about?”

“Well, remember everything we’ve talked about while he and Pidge were taken?” Hunk started, continuing when the older teen nodded. “I wanted to know if you were actually being serious about everything.”

Keith’s frown grew uncomfortable. He felt an uncertain buzz in the pit of his stomach because he both did and didn’t want to be serious about everything he had said. But when he looked over at Lance and the flutter in his ribcage made him honest with Hunk. After all, they had bonded a lot since everything had started.

“I… Yes. I really do like him and want… Something.” He couldn’t get the words out, but the smile on Hunk’s face told him he understood. “Why do you want to know anyway?”

This time Hunk shifted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Lance is my oldest friend. I, I _care_ about him.” If Keith was up-to-date on Hunk’s mannerisms he would have noticed something was off about the way he said ‘care’. “I want him to be happy.”

Keith gave Hunk a confused look, belatedly noticing the oddness in the taller teen’s choice of words but before he could question him, the pod made a quiet _fwoosh_ as it opened to let Lance out. Both teens immediately turned their attentions to the other teen as he took that stumbling step out, both on either shoulder to keep him up.

“Welcome back, man.” Hunk greeted.

“How are you feeling?” Keith asked as the two helped Lance to sit down on the stairs, Keith remembering to grab the shock blanket he had set by Lance’s pod an hour earlier.

“Morning…” Lance’s voice was husky with sleep, and he rubbed his eyes. “Everything’s not hurting anymore, but my hands still feel, like, trapped?”

Keith looked down at the Blue Paladin’s hands, which were curled into almost small circles with his index fingers touching his thumbs. Now while Keith wasn’t good at picking up verbal cues, he got physical cues down pretty well, and he knew that wasn’t how Lance ever rested his hands.

“Maybe you just need to stretch them out a bit so they loosen up? Those shackles looked uncomfortable.” Hunk suggested, taking one of Lance’s hands and helping uncurl them.

Lance nodded, watching his hand between Hunk’s larger ones, and Keith watched the two before realizing his own hands were going for Lance’s free hand.

Thinking quickly just as his fingers grazed the Cuban’s hand, he offered, “Here, uh, let me help with the other one.”

Lance blinked at him without an expression before a smile that sent warmth to Keith’s ears appeared on his face. “Thanks. I’m glad to see you both again, really.”

“Anytime, Lance. We’ll always be here for you.” Hunk promised, catching Keith’s eye for a moment.

The two helped curl and uncurl Lance’s fingers and while they did, Lance was silent, his breathing unsteady.

It was Hunk that broke the silence. “Do… You want to talk about it?”

Lance looked between Hunk and Keith, his expression guarded, something Keith had never seen before and found it ill suited on the normally open-booked happy-go-lucky Blue Paladin. “What’s there to tell? I was trapped in a windowless room most of the time, alone. Then the Prince would try to talk me into telling him everything or _something.”_

“But didn't you tell us you saw Pidge get hurt?” Hunk prompted softly, but both he and Keith stopped moving when Lance flinched.

“Okay, we don’t have to talk about it now.” Keith said quickly, looking over to Hunk with furrowed brows. He kept his hands busy by continuing to help Lance relax his fingers. “But, we’re, I, uh, it’s good to see you again... An-and safe.”

Lance scoffed but didn’t make a comment.

They continued for a couple more minutes before Lance pulled his hands away, instead to rest his head against Hunk’s shoulder and pulled Keith closer until they were all in a haphazard leaning pile on the stairs in the medical bay. Hunk wrapped an arm around the other two, and Keith felt his face warm up. He wasn’t used to this kind of closeness and extra heat, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It made his insides warm and he felt a bubble of content settle by his heart.

In the warmth and closeness, Keith found himself getting drowsy, his eyelids heavy and body relaxing immensely. From how Lance was relaxing underneath him, Keith could tell the other was also getting sleepy as well.

Before he fell out of consciousness, he was sure he heard Lance whisper. “Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* My sweet boys.  
> Things should kick off either next week or the week after, depending on how you would imagine what I mean~


	4. The Sleeping Paladin

Matt was pacing outside the medical bay for a few hours after he saw Hunk somehow carrying both Keith and Lance in his arms with only a small bit of trouble. He had waved Matt’s offer to help with a shake of his head, his face much softer in expression than Matt had seen on him, and he wondered in the back of his mind why that might be.

If he had to actually guess he would have said it was because both Lance and Katie were no longer in Galra hands, but Matt had a feeling it had to do with more than just that.

And at the thought, his pacing had started. He wanted to go in and see, he felt like he _had_ to. It had been so long, and he only saw her briefly before everything had happened.

But there was the problem his sister’s pod was hidden away under the ground, and Matt wasn’t sure how the pods worked. He wasn’t sure how to view Katie without possibly letting her out of her frozen coma, and while he would have loved to see her awake, and talk to her, he knew he couldn’t until the witch Haggar was defeated once and for all.

He wasn’t sure who he should talk to, but before long the answer came to him in the form of a humming older man.

Coran saw Matt before the young human saw Coran and he smiled good-naturedly. “Heyo, Matt. What are you up to?”

Matt stopped his pacing to see Coran, a forced happy smile on his face. “I was…” His eyes searched around the clean corridor for a better answer before he sighed. “I was wondering if I could see Katie.”

Coran gave a blank look for several seconds before Matt saw the understanding. “Oh, right, Number Five. I forget she has a rather odd name.”

Matt’s eyebrow rose in confusion but Coran went back to talking. “You want to see her? Okay, we can get her pod up in a jiffy. I think all her injuries should be healed by now so it’ll only be keeping her asleep.”

Matt felt relieved. When he and the Princess had changed out Katie’s dark Galra suit for the cryo-pod suit, they had both seen the extent of what the Galra had done to her body. Her entire torso had been beaten black and blue with spots at her sides and her ribs being the darkest areas like someone had punched or kicked her there numerous times. The Princess had been horrified at her injuries but only gave voice to them in the form of a sharp gasp. Matt had been mute because he had seen worse - had been _in_ worse state once or twice - by the hands of the Galra, but it still hurt to know despite her age, Katie was not spared the cruelty of the Galra.

He shook his head of the thought as Coran led him into the medical bay, and within moments Katie’s pod rose from its spot, the soft clear blue showing them her vitals and her face.

She looked a lot more peaceful outside the one wrinkle across her brow and the frown of her lips. Matt wondered what she was dreaming of, or if she was even dreaming at all.

“There we go. So you just go to this panel here,” Coran gestured to the only other thing sticking up from the ground in the medical bay, “and type in Pod A-3-1L, and that will either raise or lower Pidge’s pod. Careful not to input the pod number too many times, or it might get stuck. That’s never a fun thing to fix, especially with someone inside a pod.”

Matt nodded in understanding, a relieved smile on his face as he turned to face Coran. “Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

Coran returned the smile, his expression soft and sympathetic. “I’ll leave you to you things, then. Gotta pop in on the training deck and check on the gladiator bots before any of you try training.”

“Thanks again. Good luck, I guess?” Matt called to Coran as the older alien man walked to the entrance.

“Nah, it’s simple, really. But you’re welcome.”

The door slid shut after him without a sound. Matt took a breath before he looked over at his sister again.

She looked small inside the pod, but taller than the last time he had seen her. On the day they left for the Kerberos mission, Matt remembered Katie had been just tall enough to reach his chin when she chose to stand straight, and in the years she clearly had started her growth spurt. He guessed she would reach just under his eyes if they measured themselves. Coran had been right about the healing would be done, as Matt saw no bruises sneaking up from the suit. It made him worry a little less. But Matt found himself looking at her face, at her hair which was growing out but still very similar to his flyaway hairstyle. He could understand now what the Altean man had been talking about; Katie looked almost identical to him.

He was so wrapped up in comparing his sister to both himself and the last time he saw her that he hadn’t heard the medical bay door open and close, nor the quiet steps towards him and the pod until a voice spoke up behind him.

“She’s grown up a lot, huh?”

Matt yelped loudly in surprise, jumping a foot in the air as he turned to see Shiro a couple feet away from both him and Katie’s pod, holding his hands up in defense.

“Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you, Matt.” Shiro said quickly, reaching out with his fleshy hand to rest it comfortingly on Matt’s shoulder. “But seems we both had the same idea.”

When Matt’s heart started to slow down, Matt nodded, turning to his comatose sister. “Yea, I guess.”

“She never stopped believing you guys were out there, but we got as far as learning you had been rescued by rebels before we couldn’t go any further.”

“Does she know about Dad?” Matt asked, putting a hand on the metal frame of the pod.

Shiro shook his head. “We haven’t found anything about your father besides what I remember. That news will definitely be hard for her to bear.”

Matt’s eyes went to the floor before going back up after a moment. “But she has me, and Mom’s safe back home right? Sure it isn’t complete, but we’ll all have closure for Dad.”

Shiro gave a sad smile and nodded. “Yeah, that’s one way of looking at it.”

He was quiet for several seconds before speaking up again. “I’m sorry about what happened to Sam. He was a great man, and I looked up to his amazing findings on Jupiter and the Rings of Saturn. I’m honoured to have been the pilot for Kerberos.”

Matt’s eyes watered as he smiled, and he tried to open his mouth to respond but couldn’t without feeling like his throat was constricting. He nodded instead, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. He felt Shiro put a hand on his shoulder and he felt grounded by it.

He opened his eyes, giving a single nod to Shiro before looking back at Katie in the pod. “We’ll save you, sis. I promise.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had shown that last little bit about Sam Holt to one of the Discord Servers I'm in, and the reaction I got was exactly how I intended it to be. I'm sorry, it hurt me to write.  
> On the other hand, this was my favourite chapter to write~


	5. The Condition

For two days Hunk and Keith were with Lance, helping him recover from being captive, but they both still were no closer to figuring out what exactly happened to him. Keith knew there was something Lance was purposefully not telling them, and while he wanted to demand answers, he was very hesitant to actually start arguments with the Blue Paladin now.

Hunk certainly saw a difference in Keith with his interactions with Lance, and the thought of how he knew the reason why made his face heat up. But neither of them talked more about it, as one or both seemed to agree it would be awkward talking about the situation with Lance close enough to hear them.

It was the middle of the day when the three primary-coloured paladins were on the bridge with Allura as they waited for Matt and Shiro and Coran to join them for a meeting about where they would go off to.

“I know we have been taking time to recover,” Allura started, “but we need to get back into the thick of it, saving planets and innocent lives with Voltron.”

Keith snuck a glance over to Lance, but the other had his head down, hiding his expression, whatever it might have been.

Allura also turned to Lance, her tone softer than a moment before. “You _are_ okay with getting back into the fray, right Lance?”

The Blue Paladin’s head shot up and nodded. Keith  opened his mouth to call out the lie when a video feed came over the line and the crew on the bridge turned to face it.

Keith frowned angrily at the face on the screen, standing as if he could rush at the video and actually hit the Galra Prince who looked smugly at the paladins and Princess.

His eyes went over each person present before landing on Lance, and by the near-silent noise Keith heard, Lance had realized it too.

“Ah, so you are here, then.” Lotor swept his arms up in a mock greeting, the smug smirk on his face widening. “Just the creature I wanted to see.”

“What do you want?” Keith growled out, crossing the bridge to stand in front of Lance protectively.

The smirk dropped into a frown. “You took _my_ prize away.”

“Lance isn’t some prize.” Allura interjected. “He is a Paladin of Voltron, and you are never laying hands on him or any other Paladin ever again.”

Lotor raised an eyebrow. “Oh I can’t?” The smirk returned. “Then I guess I will settle with second-best.”

He looked off to the side where the crew on the ship suddenly heard shouts and cries - _young cries_ \- of fear and anger, and more importantly, in a language Keith had only heard on Earth.

_“Suelta la, hongito morado!"_ The four heard a distinctly older feminine voice shout angrily in what sounded like Spanish and Lance gasped, jumping up from his seat and gripping Keith’s arm with such force the Red Paladin winced in pain.

Before their eyes, an arm extended with a young body of a girl no older than eight being held by the scruff of her shirt, her hands wrapped around the front of her neck-hole so the hold didn’t strangle her. Her eyes were closed tightly, so Keith only saw dark brown hair and lightly tanned skin over the screen.

_“Pyrha!”_ Lance cried, making Keith and the others jump, and the little girl on the screen, now being held by Lotor, snapped her eyes open and stare in shock.

_“Leó?”_ The girl asked in a whisper that echoed on the bridge and Keith felt Lance’s hands grip all the tighter around his arm.

“Oh my god, oh quiznak, oh my g-” Lance whispered furiously before it sounded like the words got stuck in his throat.

“Ah, so we did find the right ones.” Lotor seemed to gloat, holding the girl - Pyrha - up higher off the ground and was assaulted by angry, fearful shouts on both sides of the screen.

“Why, why do you have her? What did you do?” Hunk demanded.

“It was easy to find them, really. Genetics are really easy to track.” Lotor laughed darkly.

“Them?” Lance squeaked, somehow loud enough to be heard as the Prince grinned, lowering Pyrha a bit, and Keith saw her brown eyes were huge and wet - _when did she start crying?_

“Ah, yes, you see…” Lotor swept a hand around and the four on the bridge heard stumbling feet before an older woman, maybe a year or two older than Shiro if Keith had to guess, with long wavy brown hair and sun-kissed skin similar to Lance’s, and in her arms was a boy with similar skin and lighter hair and piercing blue eyes. “I might have a set.”

Still holding onto Keith’s arm, he felt Lance stumble where he stood, as if his legs had stopped holding him up and Keith turned to help him. When he did, he saw Lance’s face, pale and shaky like the rest of him, with eyes wide with horror.

They heard a gasp over the screen as the older woman saw Lance before a flurry of Spanish came over. " _Leó! Ay dios, estás vivo? Qué pasó? ‘Tás bien? Qué haces ahí? Que esta pasando?"_

The words were cut off suddenly when an armoured hand was slapped over her mouth and she winced away.

_“Miri!”_ “Let go of her!” Lance and Keith shouted at the same time.

“Oh, I’d let them go, for a trade of course.” Lotor smirked. “Save three, turn in one, that seems like a good trade don’t you think, _my Lady?”_

“I, what no!” Allura shook her head, her voice hard. “How dare you try and threaten my Paladins like this, let his family go back to their own planet.”

“Now where do you think I got them in the first place?”

His words made the three teens stiffen, and Keith, while he had no family left on Earth, could feel the fear Lance and Hunk must have as they realize Earth had been taken by the Galra, that their families - or the rest of Lance’s family anyway - were in danger.

“Now, next time I contact you, I expect _him_ to be on his way back if he wishes for these delightful creatures to be okay.” Lotor continued, his eyes on Lance before he waved his free hand, and the last thing they saw was the terrified looks of Lance’s family and the Galra Prince’s smug expression.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations (And huge thanks to Darkavenue for the help on translating because I can't spanish for shit)  
> "Let go of her, you purple fungus!"  
> “Leo! Oh my god, you’re alive, what happened are you okay what are you doing there where are you? What’s going on?"
> 
> Ahhh, here we go, here's the plot.  
> And before I forget, Lance's sisters call him Leo because I love the headcanon that lance is an acronym of his full name, and his actual first name is like Leandro.  
> See yall next week~


	6. Backlash

Allura turned to Lance and Keith with a pained expression. “I…” She started before seeming to not know what to say to the Blue Paladin.

“We’ll get them back.” Keith said, turning to face Lance. “We can find them like how we found you and Pidge.”

“Oh yeah, can’t Matt trace the signal again? They don’t know how we found it the first time, so it should still be easy to find.” Hunk suggested off to the side, approaching the other teens.

Keith heard Allura murmur something before she quickly left, presumably to find Matt, leaving the teens alone.

Lance was still pale and he shook like a leaf in the wind. Keith gripped both his arms to try to steady him.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll get them back, they’ll be okay.” Keith tried to reassure the younger teen.

“How would you know that?” Lance snapped, anger and grief warring across his expression. “You weren’t held captive for a week. You don’t know what Lotor or Haggar can do.” Horror paled his face as if he had a sudden thought. “What if he gives them to Haggar? She’ll kill them! Oh quiznak, no, quiznak please-”

“Lance, Lance!” Keith shook Lance’s arms to bring him back. “Stop thinking like this! We’ll save them before they get hurt.”

Lance pulled away as if he had been burned. “You don’t know what could happen to them! That’s my family, Keith, something you don’t have!”

Keith opened his mouth to retort, his chest tightening painfully as if Lance’s words had shot him like an ice bullet, but Hunk spoke first.

“Lance, please, we’re just trying to help.” He said with his easy-going tone, trying to placate both paladins.

It didn’t work with Lance, whose anger seemed to change directions as he turned on Hunk. “You don’t know anything either, Hunk! My family is captive to the Galra. At least your mom and sister are still on Earth, safe together!”

“Dude!” Keith yelled, pushing Lance away from Hunk by a few feet.

Lance was still angry, maybe more now as his eyes narrowed, but he sighed and turned away from the other two. “Why don’t you just, I don’t know, go train or bake something. It’s what you’re best at.”

Keith straightened up, and was about to retort when he caught something in the corner of his eye. Hunk had his mouth open, hurt written across his face before Keith saw his face go blank.

“Is that really how you see me?” Hunk asked, his tone betraying the emotionless expression. “The food guy?”

Lance snapped up, his eyes wide as if he had realized what he said and he turned to Hunk, but could only get a frantic, “What?” before Hunk left the triangle. “Wait, Hunk!”

Hunk didn’t wait but left Keith and Lance on the bridge. Keith watched Hunk leave, confused. He had never seen the other shut away before, and it was like Lance had hit something in the Yellow Paladin.

He turned back when he heard a sniffle, blinking a couple times when Lance wasn’t standing anymore. He was curled up, his legs drawn up to his chest and his face hidden, but still Keith heard another sniffle and the Red Paladin had no idea what to do. He wasn’t prepared for these kinds of scenarios and he stood as still as a statue while Lance sobbed quietly on the bridge.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Hunk went straight to the Lion Hangars without actually meaning to, but he knew he needed to clear his head, and Amber was offering a calm, quiet place. He walked without looking at anything until he blinked and he was in his Lion’s cockpit. He didn’t sit down in the seat, but slipped down to the floor, resting against the back and closed his eyes.

Amber brushed against his conscious, a soft sort of questioning flowing between them.

“It’s… It’s nothing, Honey.” Hunk tried to brush off the worry he felt coming from her, but she persisted until he spoke. “It’s just… Everyone else is so good at this saving the universe stuff, and no one thinks I’m anything more than the support or background.”

Amber gave a stern sort of comfort towards Hunk, and he felt her shake her head slowly as if denying what he said.

“At least one person… Sentient thing I guess?” He looked around the back of the cockpit. “Whatever, at least you think so. I just… I want to prove myself to the others, to Lance…” Hunk went quiet as a small idea came to him.

He felt Amber almost hum as if considering the idea as well, before she gave an approving thought to him, and Hunk smiled.

* * *

 

Hunk had to wait until everyone had gone to bed. He avoided dinner, not wanting to see anyone - to see Lance - because he didn’t know what any of them would say if they saw him at the moment. His stomach twisted in a strange mix of worry and adrenaline for what he was going to do as he saw the lights dim in the halls from his cracked-open bedroom door, signalling it was time to sleep.

He grabbed his bag filled with his only set of clothes - he was wearing his suit for what he was going to do - and a few retractable helmets and enough snacks and non-perishable foods that wasn’t food goo surprisingly that should last for a month if he needed it.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he checked outside his room. Only Shiro’s room was the closest to his own, but around the corner were Lance and Keith’s rooms, and down another corner was Matt and Pidge’s. Finding the coast was clear, Hunk headed out, walking as quickly and as quietly as possible so not to awaken the light-sleeper Shiro or anyone else that he passed by.

Luckily no one heard him, and he reached the hangar without incident. He hurried over to Amber, casting glances around to the other connecting doors where he knew the other Lions were.

He got into her cockpit, putting his bag down in a small compartment his Lion opened up just as he got inside. He sat down and took a deep breath before putting his hands on the controls.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Allura woke up with a gasp, bolting up from her bed as the feeling of warmth like the sun faded from her chest. She jumped again when Shiro bolted up too in surprise, his hands up ready for a fight.

“No, no, Shiro it’s fine.” She said quickly, wrapping her arms around Shiro slowly, letting him see her as she did so as the last time she had tried without him seeing her she had gotten a broken nose. “It’s fine, no one’s here.”

Shiro blinked a couple times before he focused on her. “What happened then?”

Allura was sure her uncertainty was present on her face, putting a hand to her chest where the warmth should have been. “I’m not sure, but it felt like one of the Lions…”

Shiro frowned. “What about the Lions?”

“I don’t know…” She slipped out of bed, pulling her hair back over her shoulder. “I should check what is wrong… Care to come with me or do you wish to try to sleep some more?”

Shiro was already out of bed before Allura finished her question, stretching his arms over his head. “Let’s go.”

The two left Allura’s room, heading for the bridge, where they saw Matt working on finding the signal again, rubbing his eyes tiredly before he heard them.

“What are you doing up?” He yawned.

“I could be asking the same of you.” Allura replied, heading for her place at the center of the bridge.

“Allura felt something was up with the Lions, so she’s here to check it out.” Shiro explained to Matt, leaning against the Green Paladin’s chair while keeping an eye on the Princess.

Allura closed her eyes to focus on the missing feeling before her hands waved over the holo-controls, and when she opened her eyes, she frowned as the screen popped into being, showing the Lion hangars.

“Where’s the Yellow Lion?” Matt asked, pointing to the empty screen.

Allura and Shiro both straightened, looking at the other Lions, and yes, it was the Yellow Lion that was missing from her hangar.

“Wait, Hunk’s supposed to…” Shiro started before Allura spoke over him, calling for the communications link with the Yellow Lion.

“Hunk? What are you doing? Where are you?” She demanded when the connection came through, and the three saw Hunk’s face fill a small screen, his expression neutral.

“I’m not going back.” He stated simply.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heh, the entire reason this fic was made, honestly, is this chapter.
> 
> also, heh, might've forgotten it was Friday, sorry for the later than normal chapter ^u^'


	7. Stupid reasoning

“I’m not going back.” Hunk said, holding the controls to Yellow tightly as if it were a way to solidify his determination. “Nothing you say will make me go back until I do this.”

“Do what, exactly? Hunk why have you left during the middle of the night?” Allura asked, her expression a mix of sleepy confusion.

“I have to prove myself.” Hunk replied with a note of finality in his tone.

“What do you expect to prove?” Shiro’s voice came next, off to the side out of sight from Hunk’s view.

“I want to prove myself as a real Paladin of Voltron.” He started.

Allura blinked in confusion. “But you have, Hunk, you are the Yellow Paladin. What more do you need?”

“But what does that mean? I’m not a good shot like Lance, or a fighter like the rest of Voltron.” Hunk closed his eyes as the words spilled from his lips. “I’m not smart like Pidge, or even Matt, I’m not fast like Keith or Lance, quiznak, I’m not even a fraction of the Paladin Shiro is! All I am is the big idiot who stumbled into being a Paladin because you needed five people. I want to prove I can save people by myself, and I’m going to save Lance’s family and none of you can stop me.”

Allura spluttered in shock, and when Hunk opened his eyes, he saw her shake her head as if to rid something from her mind. “You’re… What? Hunk, think about what you’re doing!”

“I have. The longer we wait, the more likely Lance’s family will be in danger.” The Yellow Paladin looked straight into Allura’s eyes, holding the eye contact. “Isn’t it our job to defend the universe? How are we supposed to do that when one of us is living in fear that his family is going to be killed or tortured or worse? I’m not coming back, or willing to contact any of you until I have Lance’s family with me.”

“Do you even know where they are now? They could have easily moved since we saved Lance and Katie.” Hunk was surprised to hear Matt’s voice, coming from where he had heard Shiro’s.

He took a breath to answer before he realized Matt was right. He couldn’t be sure the Galra Prince had stayed where they had been when he, Keith and Matt had saved Pidge and Lance, and he deflated for a moment. “I’m still not going back.”

He heard a near-inaudible sigh before shuffling and Matt appeared beside Allura, his eyes half-lidded and dark circles under them from obvious lack of sleep. “Okay, do you want help to at least find where they are or are you going to let yourself get lost in the middle of _space_ because you want to prove yourself to the point of outright stupidity?”

Hunk wanted to refuse, to say he was smart enough to find Lance’s siblings without anyone’s help but at the thought now, both he and Amber had no idea where they would start looking. He sighed in defeat and nodded. “Yes. But only yours, Matt. And when you’ve found the coordinates, you all won’t hear from me until I have Lance’s family with me.” His eyes flicked to Allura’s impassive face, not revealing any more emotion as it seemed she had fully woken up.

Shiro appeared on Allura’s other side, his gaze sympathetic and restrained. “Just… Be careful, Hunk. You shouldn’t have to do this alone, if things get bad for you, contact us, please.”

“I will.” Hunk lied through his teeth before turning off the communications, stopping Amber on a small moon of a nearby planet, hidden from sight on the dark side of the moon.

Once his Lion was sitting on the moon, Hunk let go of the controls and took a deep, deep breath, hearing the shakiness as he exhaled unsteadily. He hadn’t meant to tell them anything, had been hoping he wouldn’t have to talk to them until he got Lance’s siblings, but thinking about it, that was stupid thinking. It was even more stupid to think he could find the Galra base without the signal. The base wasn’t like a planet, stuck in one system forever, and yet Hunk had assumed the very thing was stationary for some stupid reason.

Amber rumbled, breaking his thoughts with a disapproving shove in his mind.

“You’ve only known me for less than two years, Honey.” Hunk argued. “You don’t know me as well as I know me.”

The Yellow Lion gave another shove, a motherly warning against the self-deprecation but Hunk shoved back. “How can you think you know me better than me?”

He felt Amber almost telepathically grumble before she sent memories the two had done together. He felt her pride and warmth and protectiveness for every memory shown. The underwater fight with Lance against that alien snake thing. Saving the robotic-sounding aliens from their own planet’s acid as it shed the outer crust. Being found before the Galra on the desert planet, and this memory held the anticipation and trepidation for whoever would find her, whether their intentions were pure or tainted.

He knew she was trying to make him feel better, and it did somewhat, but as the memories faded he couldn’t help but think of the things Lance and Keith and Shiro and Pidge have all done that were so much more… grander, with more character building than he ever had.

“But, Lance was the one who finished off that snake thing. We didn’t save those aliens by ourselves, we barely were able to save them if the others weren’t around… All the others have such awesome bonds with their Lions, and can do amazing things with each other.” Hunk began again to argue with Amber. “Lance and Blue can do some sonic pulses and have ice powers, and he has the best aim out of any of us. Keith is the best fighter outside Shiro, and he can make Red have fire powers and like, copy the ion beam the Galra have! Even Pidge can do some cool plant powers with Green! Shiro doesn’t even need to be explained, he’s the leader for a reason, and Black certainly thinks so too. But you and me? We only get bigger claws and heavier support stuff. People don’t see me as a fighter, just the big fat food guy…” He slumped in his chair, looking down at his hands resting on his lap. “I just… Want to be more than that, more than the guy who eats his worries away. Don’t you want to be more than the leg?”

Amber rumbled softly, but gave an affirmation that made Hunk look up. He felt her thoughts on the situation. She wanted to be closer with Hunk, and it seemed she knew she had more in her than what he had seen but they had yet to unlock. There were other thoughts he couldn’t interpret, but they passed too quickly for him to even glimpse before she finished.

Hunk sat still for a few ticks before he nodded, smiling softly. “Glad we’re on the same page.” He said, standing up. “I think I’ll try resting a bit. Maybe Matt will be finished finding the coordinates when I wake up.”

Amber rumbled as if chuckling in response, and Hunk joined in quietly, heading to the small compartment where a cot lay rolled up. He unrolled it and laid down, staring up above him for a few minutes before the soft noises of his Lion lulled him into a deep sleep, exhaustion from the adrenaline of leaving during the night finally draining from his body.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over halfway finished Yellow! Woo~


	8. Frightfully frantic

Keith hadn’t seen anyone for a long time since he had woken up early to train, feeling something nag the back of his mind, until he jumped as the door to the training deck slid open and Lance’s voice was shouting much too loud for the morning.

“Hunk!?” Keith twisted his head in confusion to see Lance looking pretty disheveled, bedhead making his fluffy hair wild and wide, wide eyes with hints of terror that Keith couldn’t tell if it was real or remnants of a nightmare.

Lance’s wide, wide eyes landed on Keith’s, sweeping over as if Hunk was hiding behind him before he took off again.

Now normally Keith would chalk the weird behaviour of Lance’s up to him being his normal bizarre self, but the terror - and after everything that had happened to him the past couple weeks - made him pause.

“Cancel queue, end simulation.” Keith shouted at the training deck before sprinting off after Lance. “Lance!”

He heard panicked running ahead of him before they stopped at the shout, leaving Keith enough time to catch up to the Cuban teen. He was looking at Keith with a myriad of emotions, but he caught confusion emerging the most.

“What’s wrong? Why are you looking for Hunk?” Keith asked, his bayard in one hand, his other reaching for Lance hesitantly.

“He’s not here. I can’t, I didn’t, I couldn’t!” Lance stumbled over his words, speaking too fast for coherency.

“Woah, breathe, Lance.” Keith dropped his bayard to grab Lance by both shoulders, mirroring Lance’s body and making the other stop and look him in the eyes. “One sentence at a time, yea? What do you mean?”

“I, I, I was looking for him, to apologize for being a quiznaking idiot and hurting his feelings like that yesterday. I didn’t mean to say it, it slipped out, I know that he thinks he’s not worth anything but it slipped out because I’m an idiot and my sisters and Nino are taken and I didn’t know what I was thinking.” Lance barreled over his words, speaking much faster than before but at least Keith could understand. “I looked everywhere, he was avoiding me, I know it. I hurt him badly by being an insensitive jerk, and he’s not even in his room. I’ve scoured the entire Castle twice!”

“Maybe he’s with Yellow?” Keith suggested, stopping the flood coming from Lance’s mouth, though he was frowning. He hadn’t known that about Hunk, wasn’t as close to him or Lance as they were with one another.

Lance’s eyes widened even more and he gripped Keith by the upper arms tightly, so tight he shook the two of them. “The hangars! I searched every other place _but_ there! Quiznak you’re a genius, Keith!”

He took off like a shot, not letting go of one of Keith’s arms, and before he could pull the limb from its socket, Keith took off after him. They ran to the Lion hangars, and Keith felt Scarlett rumble in curiosity as they passed her hangar.

Lance saw into the Yellow Lion’s hangar first, and he stopped dead in his tracks, startling Keith and the two fell forward in a pile of tangled limbs and groans.

“Ugh, Keith, get off…” Lance wiggled underneath Keith, turning on his side when Keith found himself pausing, noticing the proximity, their chests touching before he fell off Lance with a grunt.

“Well, why’d you stop?” He asked, sitting up and brushing his arms, looking up around the hangar then and stopped. “Oh.”

“ _That’s_ why.” Lance sounded shaken, looking at the large, empty room.

It was clean, with neat piles of equipment along the walls, and a nest the size of the Yellow Lion, but no Yellow Lion.

Keith looked around the entire hangar. “He… Maybe he left for some air?”

“In space, Keith?” Lance sounded incredulous, standing up with a lot of effort, his hands curled tightly, and Keith saw the flash of pain from either the fact that Hunk was gone or from the pain of his hands still.

“Maybe? When I get mad I need alone time, you know.” Keith said, standing up as well. “We can see if one of the others know what happened.”

Lance didn’t answer, just walked quickly out of the Yellow Lion’s hangar, heading back towards the bridge, Keith following behind. Scarlett prodded his mind again, but Keith couldn’t talk to his Lion right now, promising he would later. He felt her somehow scoff before retreating, shaking his head.

_Stubborn cat._ He thought as the two teens reached the bridge, where they saw Allura talking quietly with Shiro by his seat, foreheads tapping occasionally against the other’s. They looked over when Keith and Lance entered, Allura straightening up.

“What’s w-” Allura started but Lance interrupted.

“Where’s Hunk and the Yellow Lion?”

Allura’s lips went thin and she went to look at Shiro, who was frowning.

“Well…” Allura bit her lip, gaze flitting back to look at the two teens. “He’s, well…”

“He’s safe.” Shiro assured, standing up to face the other Paladins.

“But where is he, Shiro.” Lance demanded, stepping forward with clenched fists, his voice wavering. Keith grabbed his wrist, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

“He’s gone to save your family, Lance.” Shiro spoke with his clipped tone, the tone he used when he was trying to distance himself from the situation because it would hurt him. “He left in the middle of the night.”

Lance froze, mouth hanging open and eyes unblinking. He looked like a fish trying to breathe over water for several seconds before Keith heard him squeak out a weak “What?”

“We, we tried to convince him to return, so we can all plan a rescue,” Allura stepped in, clasping her hands in front of her, “but he was dead-set on going now, by himself. He said he won’t let us communicate with him other than letting Matt give him the coordinates to where Lotor and the Galra base is.”

“What? Is he insane!?” Lance blurted, hands shaking by his sides. “Get him back, he’ll be hurt!”

“We can’t, Lance.” Shiro stressed. “We don’t like this any more than you do, but we can’t convince Hunk to return. He’s stopped all communications with us, I think he’s figured a way to screen who’s trying to contact him.”

Lance started to shake his head, muttering, “No, nononono.” Keith thought the Blue Paladin’s legs would fold under him, but he stood standing, albeit unsteadily.

“Are you okay?” Shiro’s voice got some colour back, hints of worry that Keith knew all too well.

Lance just continued to shake his head, a bit forceful in answer. “He’s going to get hurt! They’ll hurt him, they’ll hurt my family, why would he do that? I’m not worth it!”

“He’s not doing this just for you.” Allura said. “He doesn’t want your family to suffer at the Galra hands, and while it is unwise to go on without any sort of aid, he is a Paladin of Voltron. We have to pray he will be okay.”

“But, but but, can’t you like, feel the Lions? Just, I don’t know, get Yellow to return, please, Princess!” Lance looked to her pleading.

Allura frowned and shook her head sadly. “I cannot. If Yellow was by herself, maybe, but from what I can tell, she is siding with Hunk on this idea.”

“Quiznak!” Lance shouted, surprising the others.

“Lance, Lance, stop!” Keith finally spoke, and Lance clamped his jaws down, fast enough Keith heard his teeth clack together. “Freaking out over Hunk won’t do anyone any good. Maybe we can sneak into the talk whenever Matt finishes finding the coordinates of where your family is being held.”

The Blue Paladin looked at Keith for a long time, his emotions still swirling all over his face before they melted into nothingness and he nodded. Keith felt uncomfortable at the blank look, but he squeezed the wrist in his hand lightly. “Let’s just… You need rest, c’mon, man. We’ll see Matt and have him let us be there when he contacts Hunk, but after that you’re getting some rest because you look exhausted.”

Shiro and Allura were quiet as they watched the exchange, both looking surprised but not as surprised as Keith when Lance nodded, his feet shuffling to bring him closer to the Red Paladin like he was searching for warmth. Keith tried to play it off, blinking a couple times before he squeezed Lance’s wrist gently and awkwardly tugged his arm forward. The other was quiet as they left the bridge, leaving the leaders alone again.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THis was more a filler chapter than anything else, but it was fun to write.


	9. Final Communications

Hunk awoke to his Lion nudging his mind, blinking blearily as he grew accustomed to the sudden noise,a gentle tinkling sound like a phone ringing. He sat up quickly, looking over to the wall of screens to see it was Matt contacting him.

With a groan and a yawn, Hunk slid his hands through his hair to flatten it before he got up to sit properly in the cockpit, answering the call.

“Hey, Matt…” Hunk trailed off when he saw two additional heads behind Matt and frowned, a fluttering in his stomach that felt almost painful. “Wh-what are you two doing?”

“We should be the ones asking _you_ that, Hunk.” Lance retorted, his face pinched until Keith moved and did something the screen couldn’t see, but Hunk saw the Blue Paladin take a deep breath.

“We asked Matt to talk to you.” Keith said.

“Matt, what? I told you and Shiro and them I didn’t want to be contacted.”

“I know, I know, but…” Matt looked over his shoulders to the teens. “I couldn’t say no.”

“Hunk you can’t do this! You’ll be hurt!” Lance burst out, looking pained. “Please, don’t do this alone.”

“The longer this goes on, the more likely _your_ family is in danger, Lance. I’m not going to stay put and risk their safety.” Hunk tore his eyes away from the pain-filled cobalt ones, directing his attention to Matt. “You have the coordinates?”

“Ah, uh yea. Uploading them to your Lion.”

“Okay, thank you.” Hunk said, about to end the communications when Keith spoke up.

“Look, if you won’t listen to Lance, then just…” He let out a quiet breath. “Just be careful. You're smart, Hunk, use that big brain of yours. Okay?”

Hunk was surprised but he nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“Promise us, Hunk. Promise us you’ll be careful.” Keith spoke with a gravity Hunk hadn’t heard from him before.

He took a breath and nodded again. “I promise, Keith. I’m shutting off accepting any incoming calls now. I’ll see you when I have Lance’s siblings.”

Lance was about to speak when Hunk waved the screen away. Before the others could try to contact him again, he did just as he said and shut off incoming communications.

Sitting back in his chair, Hunk took a couple shaky breaths. He hadn’t wanted to speak to Lance or Keith until after the rescue mission, and he knew the other teens had more to say. But he knew if he listened to them he would have cracked, he knew he would have gone back for them or asked for more help.

Amber hummed, jolting Hunk out of his thoughts.

“Oh, oh yeah. Okay, you got the coordinates, Honey?” He asked, putting his hands on her controls. She hummed again, and a screen with a map popped up. It was a bit of a distance, over two systems away but Hunk could feel Amber was ready for the distance. “Alright, let’s get going. The longer we wait, the harder it might get.”

He twisted the controls and felt Amber take off from the small moon they had been resting at.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

“Hunk! Wait!” Lance was shouting at nothing now, the screen having popped out of use when Hunk cut the link.

Matt covered his ears, as he had been the closest to Lance’s outburst, and Keith winced away.

“Get him back on! Please, Matt!” He cried, shaking one of Matt’s shoulders before Keith took hold of both Lance’s wrists.

“Hey, calm down.” He ordered, looking over at Matt and saw him try to connect with the Yellow Lion again. “What’s going on?”

“He shut off communications already, I can’t get through.” Matt shrugged, his head sagging forward. “I don’t think I can get through this, we’re officially disconnected from Hunk and the Yellow Lion.”

“What? No, I didn’t…” Lance deflated like a balloon, his words feather soft. “I didn’t apologize…”

Keith felt his chest constrict, and he let go of Lance’s wrists to tentatively lay a hand on one shoulder. “Maybe when Hunk gets back you can do it.”

Lance was quiet, so Keith decided to steer the younger teen away, out of the bridge where the entire thing went down, and towards the hangars.

When the two reached the hangars, Lance headed straight to Blue’s hangar and slumped down the wall, Keith walking in behind him. He looked up to Blue’s impassive face and wondered if she was talking to Lance.

At the quiet huff made by the Blue Paladin, Keith could guess they were talking.

They were quiet for a long time, and Keith had given up standing to sit by Lance, coming close to falling asleep when the Blue Paladin spoke up, startling Keith but not noticing.

“Why would Hunk even do something like this?”

“He…” Keith felt uncertain about his answer but he felt if it were him, it would be his reason. “Maybe he wanted to help you.”

“But I’m not worth most likely getting hurt over.” Lance slid his knees up to his chest, resting his chin between them.

“That’s not true.” The words were out before Keith realized the implications they could convey. “Hunk would do anything for you, Lance. Heck, I would have probably done the same thing if I had had that thought.”

“Why? I’m not worth it.”

“Lance, you are worth more than you think you do.” Keith turned to sit facing Lance, catching his eyes. “And if it had been me, I would gladly put myself in front of your family so you wouldn’t have to see them hurt. I bet that’s Hunk’s reasoning too.”

“Why? Why would you do that for me?” Lance wrapped his arms around his legs.

The words spilled from Keith’s mouth without a filter. “Because I like you, you idiot.”

The room went quiet, both teens staring at each other with wide eyes.

“You… Wait, really?” Lance asked slowly, lifting his head to look at Keith steadily.

Keith was never good with words, so he sighed and nodded. “I… Yeah.”

“I… Uh, wow, okay.” Keith looked over at the other to see him looking at the floor between them, a curiously tender expression on his face before a cheeky smile came over him. “So you do have feelings, Keith~”

Keith felt his cheeks flame up and he stuttered. “I, you, hey!” He tried to look annoyed but the blushing didn’t help.

Lance laughed, his body relaxing. “I’m teasing, Mullet. I just, y’know, didn’t think you weren’t straight.”

“Well, not everyone is as grossly open about their sexuality as you are, Mr. Loud-and-proud bi.” Keith retorted, crossing his arms.

Lance laughed again, before it trailed off and he looked around the hangar. “Thanks, Keith. For, y’know, being here. And everything.”

“If there’s something I’ve learned from this entire nightmare, it’s to start being there for my team. For the… people I care about?” He ended with a question, feeling unsure if that was the right phrase.

Lance smiled widely. “Who are you and what have you done to Keith?” He laughed out the question, and Keith pushed his shoulder playfully.

“Oh shut up.”

“Never.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending of this chapter took way too long to get to. But here we are!  
> Things are starting to come to an end within this fic. Be ready~


	10. Tough but Soft

The Galra base was farther than Hunk thought it would be, until he remembered how Allura got the Castle as far from the previous location as she could before she started feeling faint and Shiro and Coran said they would be safe.

The base was in between two systems this time, not a moon or sun or planet within flying distance. The warships were quiet, and hardly any activity came from them.

And yet, because of the lack of hiding spots, it was a miracle no one saw the Yellow Lion as she approached, the Galra army inching larger and larger in her view.

Hunk was afraid there would be a trap, so he settled in a small asteroid field just a distance away when he found the coordinates a day and a half later. He opened up a number of networks from Amber’s controls, switching on the thermal to figure out where he needed to go. It took a while, with the distance, but as the Galra base was the only source of heat, it made things easier.

Soon, Hunk got a complete reading of the base, finding the higher than human thermal scannings everywhere on the ships before little pinpricks of yellow, blue and green mixed with the heavy red that made up Galra body heat. He got the position and zoomed, hoping to see exactly where and how many heat signatures were there, only to frown. They were small heat signatures, probably of the height of Pidge or smaller, and they were with other heat signatures that Hunk couldn’t figure out.

Hunk guessed the small signatures were Lance’s younger siblings, probably held captive with the other prisoners aboard the base, and the thought made him worry. _Where was Lance’s older sister though?_ He wondered, eyes scanning for human thermal readings again, but it was hard due to the distance and the fact it would be only one person instead of two or three together. Either he would have to wait and scan meticulously, or brave the open space - Hunk was planning on sneaking into the base again, but without Green’s cloaking ability he couldn’t bring Amber with him.

Amber growled lowly in his mind, and he practically felt the tension and resistance to his idea of going out into space without her to protect him.

“I’ll be fine. I’m small enough to not be noticed, and from the looks of it, the prison seems close to the escape pods.” Hunk reassured her aloud, but still she growled unhappily. He sighed and patted the controls. “I don’t want to do this either, but I can’t risk them capturing you while I’m getting Lance’s family. You’re safe here.”

Amber made a noise like she wanted to keep complaining but didn’t, and Hunk yelped when she laid down, her head between her front paws.

He quickly grabbed the helmets and bayard and stored them in the place where he normally stores his bayard on his suit, the pocket dimension connected to his left thigh piece of armour. When he had what he needed, he took a quick bite of some food, steeling his nerves, before heading out of his Lion, flying towards the Galra base.

As he flew, he cast a glance back to Amber, and almost felt her sadness and worry was showing in the way she lay and her expression, despite being robotic.

“I’ll be back.” He whispered a promise to both himself and Amber before turning back to the task at hand slowly made his way towards the base.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

After the confession, Keith couldn’t look at Lance. He wasn’t even all to sure why, it wasn’t like the Blue Paladin had rejected him, but there was something about seeing him, knowing that the other knew, that made it hard.

And hard it was, even avoiding him. Lance stuck to him like glue, acting like things were normal between them, but even Keith noticed some things Lance did differently. He thought about his words more carefully, seemed to lean towards the Red Paladin more often than away from him, even sitting so close to him during dinner, their knees kept touching. He was sure the others would realize what happened, but they were all busy with their food, or with talking about Hunk and Pidge, all wishing they knew what to do.

It was only at the topic of Hunk did the two teens react somberly, Lance dropping his face from view and Keith stabbing at his food goo with more viciousness than he meant to.

Coran seemed to notice their reactions first, and cleared his throat. “I know we’re all worried, but Hunk is a very resourceful Paladin. Every incarnation of the Yellow Paladin has always been this way. We must put our faith in him, he’ll return before a weblum could belch.”

Keith made a face at the metaphor but he and the others seemed to have relaxed a small bit. Trust Coran to make them less on-edge, Lance even lifting his head but his expression was still grim. The Red Paladin wondered what was going through the other teen’s head.

All too soon, dinner was finished and the teens were the first ones up and out. Keith had thought maybe to do some practice when someone grabbed his wrist to halt him.

Turning, he saw Lance, no expression on his face but his eyes seemed to be searching for something on Keith’s face.

“What are you looking at?” Keith asked, feeling self-conscious.

Lance didn’t answer right away, his eyes still searching before he finally spoke. “I was… wondering if you want to see Pidge with me.”

Keith felt like that wasn’t what Lance wanted to say, but he nodded anyways. Lance gave a small smile before he twisted their hands until their fingers intertwined, apparently ignoring the sudden clamminess coming from the Red Paladin, and the blush of confusion. He simply squeezed the fingers lightly and led the way to the medical bay.

They reached the medical bay within minutes, and soon had Pidge’s pod raised. Lance sat down at the small steps close to their friend’s pod, looking up at her sleeping form, Keith sitting awkwardly beside him.

“She looks almost normal, like nothing was wrong.” Lance murmured, sadness twisting his face. “Like she was never hurt for months and months.”

Keith looked over at her, noting her hair was longer than normal and the small crease between her brows as if she was concentrating on something really hard. He had to agree, besides those differences, Pidge looked like herself, but he knew - they both knew - she couldn’t leave the pod until they got rid of Haggar.

He put a hand on Lance’s shoulder, making him look back at him. “We’ll defeat that witch and get Pidge back. I know it.”

Lance chuckled without much humour. “Are you always an optimist, Mullet head?”

“I thought I was the pessimist?”

“I’m joking, Keith.” Lance chuckled again, with more mirth than the first, before a somber look came over him. “I just… I want everything to go back to where it was. I want Pidge to not be controlled by the Galra, I want my family to not be kidnapped, I want Hunk back so I can apologize and not have to worry about what if that video call was the last time we ever see or hear from him again.”

“Lance, we can’t worry about all that now. There’s nothing we can do but wait for the moment to be able to do anything.” Keith said.

“I know… I just feel useless.” Lance mumbled, lowering his head.

Keith caught his chin, lifting his head slowly. “You aren’t useless.” He leant forward, their noses practically touching, and it was Keith’s turn to search Lance’s face. He was surprised to see a dusting of light freckles on the sun-kissed skin.

He wasn’t sure who made the move first, but he felt dry but warm lips against his for a brief moment before they separated. Lance looked as dazed as Keith felt before he shook his head and coughed.

“I wanted to come see Pidge and talk to her, y’know?” He suddenly said, looking back at the frozen girl, making Keith jump.

“Talk to her? About what?”

“Everything that’s been going on. It’s… Something I did with my grandfather after he passed for the first couple years. It was a way to keep talking with him because he always wanted to know what I was up to.”

“Oh.” Keith was at a loss for words, still a bit dazed, but Lance sat up to look up at Pidge, holding Keith’s hand as he spoke in a soft but animated voice, seemingly about anything that popped into mind.

Chapter Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the kiss didn't feel rushed, but I've been wanting these two to kiss since Green Paladin.  
> The last two chapters were fun to write, so be excited!


	11. Rescue

Miranda had to take several deep breaths, knowing Nino and Pyrha were somewhere on board.

The aliens had separated her from them as soon as the video with her brother - _Leandro is alive, how is this possible?_ \- had ended, and her heart still ached at their cries. The past few days since being abducted, they had been together, and Miranda had done all she could to protect them but with them who-knew-where on this giant ship, she felt helpless.

The moment they had been separated, she had begged with the leader, the one of two that had long blond hair and more humanoid appearance, to let her stay with them.

“They’re only children, please!” She had cried, being held back by robots with painful grips, with tears in her eyes as Nino and Pyrha were taken out of sight.

The leader had laughed, a nice sound if it was not a mocking laugh, before he - Miranda guessed the leader would be male from his name and title - held her chin, forcing her to look up at him. “Then you better do as I say, and not a single hair will be harmed.”

Miranda took another deep breath as she carried the jug over to the table when she heard two loud finger snaps, pouring out what looked like grape juice or wine but smelled anything but.

The alien Prince waved a hand once his goblet was filled and Miranda pulled back, going back to the wall. Despite all her wants to dash out of the room, even clad in what felt like harem clothes, to find her brother and sister, her logical side knew it would be impossible to find them before getting caught. She also knew if she did anything wrong, it wouldn’t just be her getting punished but her siblings as well.

A couple minutes later, the other blond haired alien entered the room, barely sparing Miranda a glance as she walked over to the Prince.

The Prince looked up at the other with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you were leading the capture of the rest of the human's system." He commented.

“Prince Lotor, do you really think this will work?” The alien asked, ignoring the comment completely.

“Of course. You should have seen the look on the creature’s face when he saw his relations. It was pathetic, really.” Miranda bit her tongue hard to not speak in anger. “He would do anything for these creatures. I’ll give it about half a quintant before contacting the ship again.”

“I do not understand why we do not simply track the communications, my Lord.” The other alien shook her head. “If we did, we would not have to wait at all. You would have the Blue Paladin to do with as you wish, and we would have the rest killed. Voltron would be useless without the Paladins and the blasted Princess.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” The Prince smirked, his eyes looking over at Miranda and making the woman shiver. “I want my treasures to willingly come to me. Makes things easier, Haggar. I don’t have magic, so I must rely on the old fashioned ways of things.”

“Ah, of course.” Miranda thought she heard sarcasm. “Well, I will see you another time. I must see how your father is faring now.”

“You do that.” The Prince waved a hand in farewell as the alien Haggar left the room.

As the door swished shut, the Prince looked to Miranda with a smile and waved her over. “Come, girl, and sit for a bit.”

Miranda dragged her feet, sitting on the other side of the alien, her legs tense and ready to spring up.

“Tell me, what is Lance like?” His eyes were piercing, like the cobra from that Disney movie all those years ago.

Miranda frowned, confused for a moment. Her mouth opened to ask who Lance was before she remembered. Leandro both loved and hated his full name, often finding nicknames for himself. She remembered he told Mama about the newest nickname his classmates gave him, Lance.

_“It’s all my initials!” He had cried, a large toothy grin over the face-call. “I should have thought of it sooner, really.”_

Her eyes narrowed a fraction, and she rested her hands on her lap, the jug resting between herself and the alien prince. “Why do you ask?”

“To know more about this creature, of course.”

Miranda’s eyes narrowed to slits. “You expect me to believe this question is innocent? It is anything but. You will use it against him.”

An eyebrow rose along with a smirk. “Clever creature. Are all the females of your species clever?”

She clenched her jaw to keep quiet, and the Prince laughed. “I hope you realize I’m being quite nice now. If I wanted information at any cost, you would be with the druids, and I have heard the screams.” Miranda paled. “So, why don’t we play civil and you tell me what I want to know.”

“I will not tell you anything.”

The Prince sighed, pushing his chair back to stand, and immediately Miranda stood as well. The alien noticed, not saying a word but walking around the table towards her.

“Do not come near me.” She ordered shakily, grabbing the jug and holding it out in front of her as if it could put enough distance between them.

The Prince ignored her, grabbing the jug before she could throw it at him, a hand wrapping around her wrist and twisting until she let go of the jug. The crash startled her and she felt shards slice at her shins, but she couldn’t look down. The alien had gripped her bottom jaw, a glint in his eyes that frightened her and she struggled to get away.

“You will tell me what I wish to know. I am only so patient and kind.” He growled in a threatening voice.

Miranda felt her will tremble, and she whimpered when what sounded like a klaxon came on, short bursts of something that startled the both of them. The alien loosened his hold, allowing Miranda to stumble away, finally looking down at her legs to see ceramic shards from the jar piercing the front of her legs and multiple scratches.

She sank down to pull out the pieces, glancing up once to see the Prince leaving the room with a growl before going back to getting all the shards out. She took deep breaths, holding them as she pulled on the shards, wincing at the sparks of pain but happy none were very deep. When she was done, Miranda swept the broken pieces of the jug away from her and stood up, wincing against at the pain. She had to hope it wouldn’t get infected before she got it cleaned and fixed up.

The klaxon continued, to the point Miranda heard yelling and what sounded like metal against metal but not in the way swords sounded. It was almost a banging sound, and getting closer.

Carefully moving around the broken jug, she walked towards the door, sneaking a look through the thin window near the top of the door.

She saw very little, running aliens and the robots with their weird-looking guns, heard shouting and more metallic banging before she saw familiar hair and she stumbled backwards.

The alien prince came through the door, hair not as well-groomed as it had been the last time Miranda saw him, and his eyes landed on her instantly. He stalked over to her, ignoring her outburst of alarm and her struggling, forcing her to follow him out of the room and towards his chambers, where she had been forced to sleep the past… She wasn’t even sure how time worked out in space, but it certainly had been longer than two days.

He threw her in the room. “Go to the corner, and if you move, I will not hesitate to harm you.” His voice was commanding and Miranda found herself listening to him, more in fear of harm than any other reason.

She pressed her back into the corner, bringing her legs up to her chest to make herself as small as possible.

The room was quiet except for the noises that echoed from outside. Miranda wanted to ask what was going on but was too fearful to open her mouth and utter a syllable. Then the outside became quiet, and both tensed.

Miranda heard the sound of something charging before the door was blasted open and she screamed, covering her face and lifting her arms around her head.

Her hearing shot from the blast for a moment, a loud ringing in its place, she peeked over her knees to see who had come into the room, and saw a large white-and-yellow suited humanoid wielding what looked like a handhold cannon before it seemed to shapeshift. Miranda’s breath caught at the sight, watching the cannon shrink, as if by magic, into what she thought was a trident.

“You won’t be taking this little creature.” The Prince shouted, withdrawing something like a rapier and pointing it at the humanoid, and from the windowed helmet, Miranda saw dark skin and a determined set in the jaw of the person.

“You don’t own her, Lotor.” The yellow-suited person twitched their head, and the voice sounded vaguely familiar to her, though she couldn’t understand how or why. “C’mon, Miri? We’re going, come on.”

Miranda’s eyes widened and her head straightened, only to cower again at the Prince’s gaze.

“If you move, I won’t hesitate, girl.” He warned before jumping out of the way of the prongs of the trident.

“Come on, I have your brother and sister safe. We’re escaping.” The other shouted and Miranda straightened her back. “Before the guards get their backups!”

Miranda had no time to think it through, but she worked on instinct and stood up.

“Get. Back. Down.” The Prince shouted, making her heart stutter but the other fighter got him cornered.

Miranda took tentative steps towards the door, growing more sure of herself when she heard a yell of pain and a hand around her waist and pushing her forward. The yellow-suited person ran, keeping her by their side. “Just keep running, don’t look back, and don’t stop running, okay?”

“How… Who are you?” Miranda asked, her legs burning from the small scabs reopening painfully.

“My name’s Hunk. I’m with Lance.” The person answered, helmet turning this way and that as they ran down corridors, and she understood how she recognized the voice. It was the voice from the communications.

“Leo is okay?” She asked in a pant, unheard by the other over the din of running feet and heavy breaths.

“C’mon, just a little farther…” He muttered before they reached what looked like either a docking station or something.

It was only then that they stopped running, both panting, before Hunk called out. “Hey, we’re back. I have her.”

“Miri!” The young voices practically brought tears to her eyes as she saw Nino and Pyrha emerge from hiding, running to her and she dropped to her knees, ignoring the pain as she hugged her siblings tightly.

_“Oh, sweethearts, you’re okay.”_ She whispered into Nino’s hair, forgetting for the moment where they were and what was happening. “I was so worried.”

They were brought back to the situation when Hunk tapped Miranda’s shoulder. “I don’t mean to disrupt, but we really have to get going. There’s a pod we can get into, and then we can go to my Lion, and th-”

“Lion?” Miranda interrupted in confusion, looking up at Hunk who stopped mid-step towards a pod.

“Oh, yeah, you don’t know about Voltron. I’ll explain when we get to her, okay? We have to go, now, though.” He said, getting the pod open and waving them in, just as they all heard yelling coming closer.

_“Do not let them escape!”_ They heard a distant shout that made them all jump.

“Okay, _come on, sweethearts. We have to go now, we’ll be safe._ ” Miranda picked up the two and walked quickly into the pod, putting them down and turning back to watch Hunk do something with some controls outside the pod.

The blasts of the weird guns were seen before any of the aliens or weaponry, hitting the other side of the docking station. Nino and Pyrha dropped to the floor and covered their heads in fear, Pyrha letting out a shriek.

“Hurry!” Miranda shouted to Hunk, who was working quickly on the control panel. She turned back to her sibling to move them deeper in the pod and away from the open doors.

Just as she felt her siblings were safe, she heard louder blasts before a couple steps and shout of pain and a thump. Her heart in her throat, she jumped up to see Hunk crumpled just inside the pod, blood coming from one of his legs.

She heard shouting from the aliens and without thinking she ran over and shut the doors, screaming as blasts passed her face or grazed her arm until they closed.

They all heard an alien language state something before the pod was ejected, tossing Hunk and Miranda against the door with cries of surprise and pain.

Miranda thought she was okay, a little banged up, when another surprise burst of speed came out of nowhere, and she felt her head crack against the closed doors and fell unconscious.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possibly the longest chapter of the series, woop woop!  
> Miranda went Spanish when her words were italicized. Decided not to use spanish for this since it's from her pov  
> This was very fun to write, because it was again with Lance's family, and told you Pyrha and Nino weren't going to be hurt~  
> Get ready for the last chapter!


	12. Lips

Hunk still couldn’t figure out what happened. It was like his body had been on autopilot.

He saw Lance’s older sister drop, eyes in the back of her head but her chest was still rising and falling, breathing. He saw a lot of red on the floor, and couldn’t feel his right leg from below the knee and it was like he couldn’t see what happened.

He remembered approaching Amber in the pod, putting the extra helmets on Lance’s siblings, his older sister waking up just in time for them to reach Amber’s mouth.

It was a bit of a blur after that, but when he woke up, it was to three concerned faces, none of them wearing their helmets.

_“ ¿Estás bien?” _ The younger girl asked worriedly.

Hunk shook his head. “Don’t… Speak.”

“She was asking, you okay?” The older sister asked, putting a hand on his forehead.

He nodded with a smile as strong as he could muster. “I’ll be… I’ll be fine. When we get back to the Castle of Lions.” His eyes widened a bit in realization. “I, someone has to control Yellow so we can get back.”

Miri looked confused, tilting her head. “I thought this thing was on autopilot.”

Hunk sat up with brows scrunched together, looking around to the front where he saw them moving through space. His heart rate picked up until he felt Amber’s soothing presence overcame him. “Oh yeah… Autopilot, of course.”

“Are you sure you are fine? You should lie back down, you look bad.” Miri said, pushing lightly on Hunk’s shoulder to make him lay back down.

“But don’t you have questions?”

“You can answer while down, can you not?”

Hunk grew sheepish and nodded, settling back down, looking over at the younger siblings, Pyrha and Lance’s brother. “So, what’s your first question?”

“Where is Leandro?” The question came quick and for a moment threw Hunk for a loop, wondering who Leandro was before he remembered.

“Lance? Lance is in the Castle of Lions, safe with the others.”

The questions kept coming, and Hunk figured out it must have been a hereditary trait for curiosity or something similar that Lance had. It wasn’t until the younger brother, Nino, let out a noise and they all looked out the window to see the Castle of Lions come into view. Hunk sighed with relief.

“We’ll be safe now. I bet the others have seen the ship and are getting ready to welcome us back.” Hunk said with a smile, sitting up with a lot of effort and was about to try standing up when Miranda stopped him with a bewildered expression.

“You can’t get up! You are hurt!” She cried, putting her hands on his shoulder to keep him down. “Do they have anything to use as gurney?”

“What are you…?” Hunk trailed off, the last of his adrenaline wearing off as the Castle came into view, as well as finally seeing his leg.

It was a mess of new and dried blood, bent at a bad angle. Hunk felt faint at the sight, his eyes fluttering but he gulped loudly and looked to the ceiling to take deep, calming breaths as pain finally filtered into his mind.

Soon Amber landed in the hangars, and opened her mouth. Hunk and the others heard yells and feet running up the mouth-ramp into the cockpit. Pyrha was the first to see who they were and shouted happily.

_“Leo!”_ She launched herself at her brother, wrapping her arms around his middle. Soon Nino joined her, allowing the second Paladin to reach the older two in the Lion.

“Fina- Hunk are you okay, man?” Keith’s eyes were wide, and he looked pale. “What the quiznak happened?”

Before Hunk could reply, there was a loud cry of relief before a body practically fell onto the Yellow Paladin.

He let out a huff of air in surprise, temporarily forgetting about the pain in his leg, and he managed a smile. “Told you I’d see you again with them, Lance.”

“You…!” Lance couldn’t seem to speak, before he leant forward and kissed Hunk full on the lips with force.

He pulled away, smiling wide with shiny eyes. “Thank you thank you thank you.” He whispered, resting his head against Hunk’s shoulder, and for the moment, it felt like everything was going to be okay.

Story Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortest chapter of the series, whoopwhoop!  
> I used google translate for the final bit of spanish in the series, and what Pyrha said was "Are you okay?"  
> Sorry if the ending is bad, I really couldn't figure out how to end it. But anyway, this is the end of Yellow Paladin!  
> Look forward to Red Paladin, which'll pick up where we left off here, next Friday! It'll be fun!

**Author's Note:**

> Unlike the previous fics, I cannot upload twice a week, so I'm settling on uploading chapters every Friday


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